Voice of the people (letter).

Perverse Incentives Fuel Chain Saws

ROCKFORD — A good amount of the lumber sold in the United States comes from government-owned forests. The U.S. Forest Service sells timber from these forests, frequently at below-market prices.

Legislation passed by Congress encourages the Forest Service to engage in such practices. Its managers are rewarded for getting the "cut" in their region of the national forest, while a portion of the proceeds from timber sales goes to the agency's budget.

In addition, about 25 percent of the money raised in a timber sale goes back to the counties where the logging took place. States like Oregon and Washington use these funds for various purposes, including construction and refurbishing of school buildings. When local government budgets are tight, the temptation is to lobby the feds to chop down a little more of the nearby "national" forest.

To top it off, our representatives in Washington have given the timber industry a $458 million subsidy to build roads in the national forests to facilitate logging. U.S. Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) has voted in favor of this program.

There are now approximately 380,000 miles of roads built in our national forests, or about eight times the number of miles of interstate highways. And every new mile of road built in a wilderness area only contributes to its deterioration.

The timber companies are big contributors to the campaigns of representatives and senators of all the western states. Large amounts of PAC money are given to ensure the representative's or senator's vote on continued logging in the national forests. Attached to the present Senate Interior Appropriations Bill (S-2237) are a number of anti-environmental riders:

- Funding for a $30 million, 30-mile gravel road through National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness in Alaska.

- Funding to ensure roads in national forests are fixed to handle heavy logging trucks.

- A proposal to require the removal of all "economically viable commercial wood products" prior to conducting prescribed burning in national forests. This would remove the older and stronger trees that would benefit from the burning.

- Authorization for $13 million to build a 3-mile road up to Snow Basin Ski Area in northern Utah. This is essentially a subsidy for the resort's developer.

- A mandate that the Forest Service offer for sale and allow logging of 90 percent of the timber volume proposed in the Tongass National Forest Plan in Alaska. Most of the red cedar from Tongass is exported directly to Japan.

- A bill transferring jurisdiction of the 170,000-acre Land Between the Lake Forest in Kentucky and Tennessee from the Tennessee Valley Authority to the U.S. Forest Service for the purpose of commercializing the forest.

Every time you buy a 2-by-4 from the local lumber yard, you are indirectly supporting destruction of our national forests and ruining wildlife habitats.

The lumber we need could be supplied by privately owned instead of taxpayer-subsidized national forests. That might increase the price of an 8-foot 2-by-4 by 45 cents or so.